"My Freshman Year"...Surprisingly Similar to MY Freshman Year...

The final reading for the semester, My Freshman Year – What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, written by the author pseudonym Rebekah Nathan, an anthropologist and ethnographer, proved to be an enjoyable read. I was annoyed with the pseudonym and inability to give the name of the university and students that the viewpoints came from, but am going to resist a Google search that will reveal some of these answers and roll with Nathan’s ethics of being an ethnographer. While I did not find many standout teaching tips while reading the book, the concept of being mindful and relatable to your students emerged and was reinforced throughout the novel, something that can relate to many aspects of successful teaching. I will reflect on surprising aspects of the book, my advice for new teachers, and my perspective on undergraduate students.

What was the most surprising aspect of the book, and why did it surprise you?
The most surprising aspect of the book was how comparable nearly everything was to my freshman year. I was a freshman four years ago, also when this book was published, so it was like a walk down memory lane for me. While reading, I pictured myself at my residence hall meetings, making residence hall community contracts, eating in the dining center, choosing different organizations to become involved in, and changing my major among the many activities described. I used to wonder what college life would be like at a different university in another part of the country because North Dakota State University is not necessarily the most glamorous or well known college. However, after reading this book, though it was written based on a college of similar population (13,000 students), the life of a freshman at this university was so similar. Depending on the location of the school, there may be more things to distract you from your studies, but the responses and observations of these students were all things I did or can think back to observing as a freshman.

Another surprising thing is that students do not feel a sense of community and really don’t care to. So many opportunities are on every campus to become involved and so many students do not. The way Nathan related so many things back to the theme of community and belonging showed me many different ways in which students do and do not embrace campus. Community not only included those organizations that some students see themselves conforming rather than being individuals (I would love to elaborate on Nathan’s references to Greek Life, but that could be a whole separate blog in itself) but also people watching the Superbowl in their own rooms instead of together at the residence hall-wide sponsored event. I then contrasted this with some of the international students’ comments about how the American culture is very individualistic but have so many group projects. Is this so that we don’t fail and lose credibility or face as individuals but as a group where one can’t be easily blamed?

In light of the challenges faced by undergraduate students highlighted in the book, what advice would you give new college instructors?
Reading this book reinforced and reminded me that undergraduate students are faced with so many other things in their life and your class is not always going to be their biggest priority. I think if the research found in this book about the number of students that work, their average amount of time spent preparing for class, volunteering, and doing other activities would be even more different compared to the few years ago when this book was written. College students seem to have the academic side of going to college on the backburner. Comments like those on page 102 about staying in college to experience the culture, parties, and climate of college more so than to earn a degree are disheartening but the reality of the education system today. I myself have said I want to stay in school rather than get a “big kid job” Many of my friends also feel this way. Students today are balancing working and going to school while getting to still partake in these fun parts of being a student.
New instructors need to remember those conversations they hear in class like mentioned in the book about how students talk about parties they went to or other activities they did but then say they did not have time to finish their assignments. I am learning to not be so understanding and that I know that students were probably procrastinating and doing less important things. I wish I could tell my students that I was vice president of my sorority for two years, a Bison Ambassador, an Ambassador for the College of AHSS, in 4 honor societies, worked on weekends I did not have any other activities going on and maintained exemplary grades. New teachers are given very dissonant advice. Some people tell us to be understanding of our students and others say to stop caring. Some classes might lend themselves to lenient policies while others not. My advice is to be consistent with your views and expectations. When you are hired to teach at the college level, you were chosen for a reason and able to teach at such a high level because of your abilities and were most likely a successful student. The habits of some undergraduates will not put them on track to put them in a position to one day teach.

Has this book changed your perspective on undergraduate students? If no, why not? If so, how so?
Reading this novel has not necessarily changed my perspective on undergraduate students because I was an undergraduate student just a mere 6 months ago. If I was further removed I may have found this information more valuable. The experiences and information was very comprehensively covered which could give an older teacher insight of current challenges of students. However, near the end of the book, Nathan effectively gives the reflection of “the teacher as student.” Since I am still so close to the time when I was an undergrad, I can still relate to my experiences and am obviously still a student while trying to take on the teacher role at the same time. Nathan was trying throughout her time to conform and relate with the undergraduates, while I find it challenging for myself to distance myself from them and create a credible authority figure.

Two more textbooks to add to my collection...

Call me a nerd, but I always get a small feeling of satisfaction when I reach that point in the semester when I can say I have read my entire textbook. In this case it may not have been the most dense readings to celebrate completing, but I have a notebook and blog full of tips and ideas to incorporate into my own education and teaching from two texts. The final section of our readings discussed the topic of strategic learning and how to make students more responsible for their own learning. I found the following tips to be helpful and can be incorporated into the field of communication and my teaching as follows:

Ethical Teaching:

• Ethical teaching has been brought up now in both texts. However, in McKeachie's teachings, he brings up other ethical situations that go beyond the obvious of not having personal relationships with students, accepting bribes for grades, etc. I have never taken an ethics class, but I find it interesting that so many actions and scenarios can always be related to ethics. The most useful thing McKeachie addressed was that teachers are being unethical when they are unprepared to teach (p. 329). It is half the battle getting students to come to class and want to be there. It is unacceptable to have students in the classroom and not be getting their full worth out of each class period. It is the teacher's duty and responsibility to be prepared. I appreciate that McKeachie acknowledges that every class period will not be your best. An ethical teacher will also always stay up to date on the content they teach and adjust lessons accordingly.
• Teachers need to follow ethics of not only being a teacher, but also their distinct fields. Communication ethics is again something I have not taken a class on yet but I would like to begin independently reading about how to stay educated on from this site and many others. To address staying up to date with communication content to teach current information, communication scholars and teachers face a rapidly advancing field. New ways of communicating are being created as fast as technology is advancing. Research and knowledge of these new mediums are going to be needed to most effectively use these new tools. Teaching future communication scholars about the past and current methods will prepare them to be the future of the discipline.
• As a graduate student now, I get excited when I hear undergraduates talking in the library or students of my own that are communication majors. I want to share stories or give suggestions to those I overhear and get nervous teaching communication majors. I am teaching such an introductory class that I want to do a good job so they can use what they learn in my class to build on in future communication classes. I also want to show my excitement and knowledge of the field to inspire them as my professors did for me. In regards to preparation, I know that I am not a good presenter when I am unprepared so I need to spend extra time preparing. There have been days that I have been more prepared than others to teach and I think judging by student reactions that it was obvious. Some lectures went short and some activities did not go as planned. I will use these setbacks as learning experience for the next time I teach as all good teachers learn from their mistakes.
  

Strategic Learning

• I have noticed early in my teaching experience the different types of students. I am happy to read that there is some theory behind my observations and it is not necessarily my teaching that attributes to why some students do not do well while others excel. Strategic learners are those that know when they learn something and when they don't. They are the students that will ask questions of the teacher, peers, or seek out other sources (p.301-302).
• I hope that once students find the discipline they enjoy that they become more strategic learners. Some students will just understand information easily while others will struggle. Once I found my major that I truly enjoyed, I began to become more engaged in class, choose harder topics to study, and even challenge information I found. I think this is applicable to strategic learners in all fields. The more information one seeks, the better the scholar. Being motivated by enjoying your discipline is one of the best feelings. I hope that I can elicit this excitement one day by being a professor in an upper-level course to further the discipline of health communication.
• I think to encourage strategic learning in my classroom I would follow McKeachie's tips to increase student self awareness. McKeachie says that when students have goals, they will know what it is going to take to learn and achieve those goals (p. 302). I will also do a better job of introducing the class I am teaching right from the beginning. As I have learned from being a first time teacher, nobody can predict how your class is going to learn the material best on the first day. However, I have learned from this semester that I will need to be more explicit next semester and teach students how to use their textbook the best way. The thing I think will improve my teaching the most for next semester is that I have SO many examples of what my students did this semester that worked and did not work that I can anonymously share with future classes, as McKeachie suggests on page 307.

Lifelong Learner

• The final tip I found helpful this week is similar to the ethical concern of staying up to date with the content you are teaching. Teachers need to be lifelong learners and also teach their students to want to be lifelong learners. I find the suggestion of utilizing the power of observation to be one of the most helpful I have read this semester. I think by observing excellent teachers as well as those that one may view as poor (possibly because of unmatching learning styles) to learn from. My teaching observations are proving this as well as feedback I have gotten from doing the teaching demo in class and my COMM 110 mentor observing me teach my own class. McKeachie suggests videotaping yourself to watch. I think this is an amazing tip that would be very beneficial, but I just can't bring myself to do this or watch the tape. Like McKeachie also said on page 349 that feedback from peers can make you very anxious, the day I was observed I felt more nervous than I ever had before. I remember the day my own COMM 110 teacher videotaped herself and we all thought was strange. I now know why she was doing this.
• When teaching, it is important to also practice the things you are teaching your students. I think that the COMM 110 teachers maybe should videotape parts of their teaching and watch to see what vocalized pauses or other bad habits they do while teaching.
• To incorporate lifelong learning and observation in my own teaching, I will follow McKeachie's tips of observing others and using techniques from other disciplines. It would not be fun to have the same style of teaching in all of the communication classes taken in a semester, so observing only other communication teachers might be a bad idea. It is best to get the basics down from watching a seasoned professional in the field, but new ideas that can be adapted will benefit the students as well as the teacher. Also, being observed by a peer and using feedback from students will help adapt to the current semester as well.

On a final note, I try to take a minute or two most days to reflect on the phrase "you learn something new every day" by thinking about what I learned for the day. McKeachie also closes on page 357 by saying, "The great thing about teaching is that there is always more to learn" in regards to teaching and improving yourself as a teacher. I don't always learn a new skill or some profound new piece of knowledge, but instead take the little things people say or do to help shape the person I am today and the interactions in and outside the classroom are now starting to shape the teacher I am.

Helpful additional information from this week's readings:

President Barack Obama delivered a historical speech to the school children of America this year. In his speech, he challenged students to take more control and be more responsible of their own education by setting goals. I think this follows what McKeachie suggested about motivating students. This link provides the video and other links to material that relates to the speech. Even though the speech was geared towards students in k-12, I still think it contains pertinent information for all scholars.

This link is to a book review of The Ethical Teacher by Elizabeth Campbell written by
Aubrey J. Scheopner. I found this useful because of the examples and further definition of ethical teaching and being an ethical role model for students. This article further defines the obvious ethical standards of teachers. One example I found helpful that is discussed and I learned a little about in my teaching classes last year is that you must be mindful of the language you use. For example, when asking for papers to be signed or discussed at home, it is not ethical in this day and age to always say "your parents" or "mom and dad" because some students will feel excluded because more and more students do not live in traditional family settings. Instead, it is appropriate to say "parent or guardian".

Teachers need to be lifelong learners. This short article addresses how a teacher can and should teach their students to be lifelong learners also.

This week's readings covered a wide range of topics. Some topics, such as teaching large classes, distance education, and using feedback from students were very relevant to myself and my future teaching career. Other topics, such as instruction of labs were interesting because I took 4 lab classes when I was a pharmacy major, but probably not something I will be teaching in the future.

Things I found helpful this week:
Discussion-

• The topic of discussion was once again suggested, but this time more connected to large classrooms with McKeachie reiterating on page 255 what he also talked about in chapter 16 that students learn better with discussion rather than straight lecture. I like that research and experienced teachers confirm that discussion is possible in large classes. McKeachie shares that any activity done in large classes needs to be very organized and there is not a lot of room for spontaneous discussion or activities. I think this is good advice because of how much confusion can come from unclear directions in even a small class.


• Discussion in all fields of study is important. Great ideas, further clarification, and examples can come from discussion. The field of communication embraces discussion, even in large classes. When I took Intercultural Communication and Human Communication, the classes had over 50 students. The teachers always asked questions of the entire class and created a conversational atmosphere.


• Something from the discussion section that I will incorporate if I have a large class and possibly even in my class of 22 students is the "fishbowl" method of discussion that is described by McKeachie on page 257. The description of choosing a few students to sit in an inner circle and discuss questions with me and other "fish" with the rest of the class observing and taking notes on what is being said reminded me a lot of the mock focus group I participated in. I think this is just a great idea that I have never thought of. I think I could implement this in my class without the students even knowing it since there are a few distinct students that regularly discuss. I would have all of the students write a short minute paper about what was said and what they would have said differently. This gives them the chance to share their ideas captively without the fear of speaking out.

Online Learning-

• McKeachie describes distance education as "one of the most challenging and satisfying forms of teaching" (p. 288). New developments in technology is advancing this option of study and online learning is increasing in popularity for students. However, it may go unnoticed by students the amount of work that actually goes into planning and facilitating a course taught at a distance. Online classes need to be carefully planned and designed. The table shown on page 291 and described on page 290 would be very helpful in planning any course. By laying out the number of weeks, you can spread out the readings and assignments as to not overload the students. It is also important to let students know why the course is set up in that way. Online students are often busy, so justifying assignments, keeping discussion questions interesting and giving manageable workloads is essential.
  
• Online and distance education is growing at NDSU. This summer some of the communication majors were added as online degrees as well. I personally would not like to take an online class at this point in my education, but for some it is their only option of being able to go to school. I think that for myself I am still biased by the outdated stigma that online learning is not as good as in the classroom. I would take an online general education class but I just do not think that upper-level, major-specific classes would be as beneficial if taken online. However, online courses have been tried and successful across many fields of study.
  
• With online learning becoming more available at NDSU, I may be asked to teach a class at some point, possibly during a summer semester. I would like to try this because I am not a huge fan of lecturing in front of the class yet, but am a very effective communicator through e-mail and am very organized. Being organized would be a key skill because I would have to keep a very organized Blackboard site and keep student work organized and accounted for. I would incorporate the many tips McKeachie suggested such as using familiar, concrete, simple, everyday language in teaching online or any classroom. If I were to teach a course anytime soon I would check the web for even more tips and consult with others that have taught online to learn from their pitfalls and successes.

Feedback from Students-

• The last useful topic I found this week was regarding feedback from students as discussed in chapter 9 of First Day to Final Grade. Curazan and Damour preface the chapter by reminding future teachers that we need to "remember that in the same way paper grades are about the student's work, not about the student, student feedback is about the course, not about your value as a person" (p. 166). Feedback is important to make sure the students are learning effectively. Concepts and activities may make perfect sense to you, but if the students aren't getting what you intend out of it, then you need to readjust. I think feedback should be solicited early and often. You want to make changes right away and at midsemester so that the remainder of the course is not a loss. I find this information helpful as a teacher because it reinforces what I value as a student as well. I value that teachers care enough about the class that they take the time and will assess the assignments and other aspects of the class to enhance the learning.
  
• I think any field of study can benefit from student feedback. Each class that you teach is going to have be different. The students are unique and together form a distinct climate that may learn better in different ways. Many teachers have used this feedback and gotten rid of assignments, added new ones, or changed different aspects so that the students used them more effectively. This can be argued that some of the hard sciences can't necessarily readjust their assignments or drop tests, but I think the instructors could greatly benefit from knowing how their teaching is. I had a chemistry professor that went the entire semester just reading his PowerPoints word for word. I do not learn that way. I could have stayed in my dorm and read the PowerPoints and got the same information. I was never given the option to voice my opinion about this until the end of the semester, and most classmates felt the same way. However, I don't think the chemistry department takes the student ratings of instruction as serious as other departments because I had the teacher again for my next chemistry class and it was taught the exact same way with more difficult concepts.
  
• Student feedback is very important in the department and our assistantships depend on end of semester feedback. This was actually reiterated on Monday during our COMM 110 seminar class. At the end of the semester we are not looking for feedback that says we are the nicest teacher they have ever had, but feed back that says we were a fair but tough grader, the students learned a lot, and that they lessened their fear of public speaking. I have and will continue to seek student feedback throughout the semester. I am looking for ways of soliciting better feedback that I can actually use. The last time I asked for feedback, many responses said "less quizzes." I thought that was funny because I had only given one quiz so far, so that feedback was not that helpful unless next time I specify to write why the students feel they do not need quizzes and what would be a better alternative. A doctoral student suggested for quick feedback to have students take a post-it note and write something they like and something they do not like in the class and then stick it on the door as they leave the classroom. This technique might not solicit the most constructive feedback, but the students actually wrote things because they for some reason enjoyed writing on the colorful paper and getting to stick it to the door anonymously.

Online Teaching Tips

This site gives quite a few tips regarding different areas of teaching, especially online teaching. I especially found the checklist for structuring an online course to be beneficial if I one day teach an online course. It lists many items you should include on your syllabus or online document listing for helpful links that I would not have even thought of.

On this site I found even more direction and definition of the Fishbowl Discussion technique.


This article looked at whether student evaluations differed if they were online compared to those done by pencil and paper. The result of the study was that online evaluations resulted in students giving more formative feedback and writing more comments. Other varied results of the study may encourage or discourage a teacher from using online evaluations.

Active Learning

Looking back to last week's readings and wondering how in the world I will be able to give students responsibility in my classroom without losing all control has been eased by suggestions given in this week's readings. The following are some ideas I have gotten from these readings to incorporate active learning in my classroom. At this time in my teaching experience I know that lecturing is not one of my strongest skills as a teacher, so activities will help students apply the information and make sense of the information I present to them.

In the course that I am designing, a 300 level health communication class, I would like to have the following activities enhance learning in my classroom:

• A high stakes writing assignment will be due at some point in the semester. I will either make it a midterm type assignment or have it due towards the end of the semester. Regardless of which date I make this assignment due, I want to make sure I would have enough time to correct and return the papers to the students. My pet peeve as an undergrad was putting so much time into final assignments and never seeing any feedback. As Learner Centered Teaching and McKeachie (p. 197) suggest, I will let the students choose topics to write about that interest them. The main focus of the assignment will be to choose some communication phenomena that is present in the media and analyze the impact of the media. In this high stakes writing assignment, students will be able to demonstrate how much they have learned and understand by applying course theory and an analysis method. I will pay careful attentention to grammar, structure, and the level of application of theory and analysis. As McKeachie suggests on page 198, giving the students an assignment sheet detailing exactly what is expected of them will be very beneficial. I will make one of these for this assignment giving further detail of what should be included and what I am evaluating based on. Low stakes writing assignments can also be given throughout the semester with this high stakes assignment by having students turn in multiple drafts or having pair and share days to get feedback along the way. This will also keep students on track so they do not leave the entire assignment until right before it is due. McKeachie describes this best on page 199 and reminded me immediately of my undergraduate theory class. If I correct the students' drafts by spending time early on to give feedback, I will hopefully ensure an even better final paper because the writing will improve. In my theory class, we had one major paper. The paper was due in different sections that my teacher would correct and give a grade that had less of an impact than the final paper itself. If students chose not to turn the draft in, they lost out on those points and the invaluable feedback. When it was time to turn the final draft of the entire paper put together, I was very proud of my work, and the teacher barely had to spend any time grading because she had already gone through each section once.
• Another assignment I will encorporate into my class reflects McKeachie's findings that "teaching results in better learning than being taught" (p. 215). I would like to incorporate the "learning cell" approach to encourage reading of the textbook. This 300 level health communication class will more than likely be the first class students will have regarding health communication specifically, so getting the main theories, definitions, and general information regarding interaction, media, culture etc. will be vital for other classes and professional careers. I would like to have students write any questions they have while doing the readings and spend the beginning of each class addressing these questions in pairs. Students can ask each other for further clarification. If at the end of the designated time questions are not answered, I would open it up to the entire class for someone to share their knowledge. Finally, I would address or give additional information. If I did this with every reading, I would need to have this very well planned out and make sure students are on task. As McKeachie shares on page 217, students will then be more likely to speak out during discussion possibly while I am lecturing to add additional information or ideas because they have had time to clarify and confirm their findings.
• A final active learning assignment I am 100% positive that I will incorporate into my class is the use of case studies. I think case studies in health communication are one of the best ways to illustrate and demonstrate the need for health communication. I will choose case studies and have students analyze what communication is happening and whether it is effective or not. Students will be able to see where the problems are in each case study and how the communication was successful and suggest how it can be improved upon. Case studies in regard to health campaigns and patient-provider interaction are very common. There are many health communication case study texts, but I think I would use "Health Communication in Practice: A Case Study Approach" edited by Eileen Berlin Ray. As McKeachie suggests to do while teaching with case studies (p. 225), I would try to stay back and let the students lead the discussion and report their findings. Perhaps partnering students up after they form initial thoughts about the cases will spark more discussion to contribute to the whole class. I will be there to further probe and promote deeper analysis and clarification. Looking at these case studies will give students more experience with what happens in health communication before entering real settings as professionals themselves. They can learn what went wrong in health campaigns or how to better interact with patients and other providers to prevent or enahnce the situations in the case studies.

As we discussed in class on October 15th, Learner Centered Teaching is sometimes the easy way out for teachers to lecture for 20 minutes and then depend on an activity to fill the rest of the class. I think when this is the case the activities are not well planned out and become busy work for the students. I have learned this is the case in my COMM 110 class. I have a great idea for an activity but the students either are not into it, the activity ends quicker than expected, or is unclear so the students start to become off task. As I have observed from my own teaching and watching the teaching demonstrations in class, there are many aspects that must be considered for an activity to be successful. First, the instructor should know exactly how the activity should go, how long it will take to complete and fully debrief, and have outcomes and examples ready to share. The activity must have clear directions. There is always at least one student that will not understand and then veer off task while they are supposed to be working, possibly taking their whole group with them. We also talked earlier in the semester about telling students why they are doing an activity and why it is not just busy work. Letting them know how the activity will help them learn the material before and after the activity is beneficial. I also have found that walking around the class early in the activity is beneficial. In my COMM 110 class I did not do this for one of the first activities I assigned. The students were looking at sentences on a worksheet I had printed for them. When I finally made my way to a group in the back it turns out I had given them the last page of my lesson plan notes instead of the worksheet, so those students were completely lost. Proper debriefing of an activity is also a good way to enhance understanding. Students sometimes do not have that "aha moment" while doing the activity, but afterwards create those connections of understanding with further explanation or examples. Planning out the amount of time will also help with this because you want to have sufficient time to wrap the activity up and transition into what comes next.

Grading Writing
This website gives more tips for grading and giving feedback. At the bottom, there is a section about using grading rubrics or grids. You can click on the plus signs to expand the information. McKeachie suggests the use of a grading grid to make grading easier and consistent on page 199, but I was still unclear about what exactly this all entailed, so this site helped clarify a bit more.
Peer Review Tips
These are a few more tips regarding peer review and what the reviewer should think and ask themselves while reviewing.

Learner-Centered Teaching

The first day of class when I answered what I thought learner-centered teaching was on the pre-test I was not sure exactly what it was. I thought it had something to do with teaching in a way that reaches all of the students in the class. By "all the students in the class" I meant based on the idea that all students learn differently. A few weeks ago I was thinking about that pre-test and if we would address what exactly learner-centered teaching was. This week's readings provided me with a pretty good understanding and some ideas on how to incorporate this approach into my own teaching.

Learner-centered teaching (LCT)
Based on readings by McKeachie in his Teaching Tips text and the Learner-Centered Teaching excerpt, I think LCT is about power balance and motivations for learning shared between the teacher and students. As the Learner-Centered Teaching excerpt concluded in the very beginning, today's students are not self-motivated or very confident. So, it is up to the teachers to teach in a way that motivates the students to learn. Knowing the motivational theories McKeachie discussed can change the way one teaches a great deal. I think each motivational theory can be applied to any classroom with diverse students. Within my first week of teaching I noticed that some students are motivated by different things when some students always questioned if they should be taking notes or if specific bits of information would be on the test. I also had some students that didn't take any notes but were very engaged in discussion or the activities we did. Now knowing that these are known as extrinsic and intrinsic motivations respectively, I can tell which students are here just for the grade and which are genuinely interested.
As McKeachie suggests, giving students a sense of autonomy, or letting them be in charge of what is happening in the class in regard to due dates, topic selection etc. is sharing the power of teaching with them. This power will help motivate them to do the work and learn because they made a decision about it. When the student gets a bad grade, they then are more likely to blame themselves because they chose the topic. If students feel they played a part in shaping the course, they will be more engaged and eager to learn, according to the Learner-Centered Teaching excerpt.
An example of learner-centered teaching in regards to my definition above could be:
A classroom with many students that learn better by application and visual representation of the material. If I were to practice learner-centered teaching, I would early in the course ask the students how they could best show their understanding. Many students would add a project or presentation instead of only three exams. I would then allow the students the power to eliminate a test and add in a project that they are allowed to choose their own topic and they would be motivated to learn because they had some power in choosing a major assignment.

Incorporating Learner-Centered Teaching
While I do believe it is important to accommodate all students in the classroom, I do not think it is OK to compromise the teacher's sense of power and control in the class. Giving students some control will make the teacher seem more human and open to change, which can be comforting as a student. There is no reason why students should go to class fearing their teacher's power like I did in some of my undergrad classes. I think LCT can be more easily incorporated into fields such as communication, psychology, sociology, and the like because there are more options on how to learn the material. I think letting students choose assignments or projects is more practical to show their understanding compared to classes such as biology or chemistry as the Learner Centered Teaching article suggested on page 45 that some classes will always remain in full control of the professor. I would not want future doctors or pharmacists deciding they didn't need to be tested over a chapter of human anatomy and physiology! However, I will try to incorporate the following suggestions McKeachie offered:

• Giving motivational feedback and suggestions for improvement on extrinsic rewards (graded assignments). Giving feedback will motivate students by seeing what they did well and how they can improve. It can be disheartening to get something back that you worked very hard on with only a grade and no justification for that grade.
• Showing my motivation for assignments - by telling the students what my motivations are behind giving an assignment will leave them less likely to think I gave it just as busy work. When the students know what they are supposed to get out of an assignment, they may be more motivated to give it their best attempt and be able to remember and apply the information. Also, if I am excited about an assignment, the students may also feel this way.
• Give feedback often to promote mastery through revision - This is something I want to incorporate immediately. My students seem to be missing points on the same things over and over again. To overcome this, I will start having students do peer reviews or perhaps I can take a look at rough drafts to catch these mistakes students might not even know they are making. If you do not bring attention through revision, some students will just keep making the same mistakes over and over. I think I am doing a good job of looking at the students' work, but they have not taken the corrections into account because I have not emphasized them to take advantage of my feedback yet.
• I will definitely try in most situations to let students choose their own topics. I cannot think of a time when I was given a topic to research or do a project on that I enjoyed completely. The freedom to choose something that interests you is always motivating and keeps you wanting to work on your project. For most projects, you spend a lot of time getting to know your topic so if a student does not like it, they may be less likely to put the time and effort into it. I think in the end if a student receives negative feedback, they then are more likely to attribute it to themselves for choosing a tricky topic rather than the teacher being poor or having other motives for giving a bad grade.
• Lastly, I would like to just be a good teacher, as McKeachie suggests. Being a good teacher will make students want to come to class and engage. Matching learning styles was suggested in the chapter regarding culturally diverse students, but I think that applies for all students. Being concrete, conversational and accessible to the students will allow me to give some of my power to the students in a way that I still have control.

Things I will NOT be incorporating:

• While I stated above, I do think it is important to let students make some decisions regarding the class, I don't think I would let students choose the textbook in the class. The text should be chosen long before the class begins. The only sharing of power in textbook selection that I can think of is previewing a few texts for feedback with current students that will be used in the upcoming semester with new students. Ultimately, I believe that the power of deciding what content the students learn in the classroom (as discussed in the Learner-Centered Teaching excerpt) should be left up to the teacher.
• I would never leave the syllabus up to the students to help me with in the way suggested in the readings. In class we are learning how much time goes into make a syllabus and how important objectives and policies are. Teachers have a credibility to hold up and not having a completed syllabus would annoy me as a student. I would be grateful for being able to give input, but I think the teacher should know what they want to teach and what the students are responsible for learning. Having students decide course objectives, assignments, and due dates is giving away too much power. A syllabus is created as a contract for learning. A syllabus can always be eased up on as the semester goes on, but in the beginning must be concrete. If the syllabus is too vague as student input could result in, students will say they had alternative meanings when they created it and try to find holes in the policies to slip through with their excuses.

I think the text has given me a good idea of what learner-centered teaching is and how I would and would not incorporate this strategy into my teaching. I think ultimately, time and experience in diverse classrooms will give me even more ideas of what works and does not work when allocating power to students and helping each of them individually achieve in a diverse class.

More Motivating Students Tips
These tips are taken from Barbara Gross Davis' 1993 book, Tools for Teaching.

Are We Giving Students Too Much Power Over Teachers
This article addresses grade inflation, parent responsibility, and the impact of giving students power in the classroom.

Entry 6

This week's readings came at the perfect time. It is the week I will be giving and grading my first exam and about the time in the semester when students seem to have become comfortable with their teachers and classmates. This comfort level in my class is seeming to make students start questioning what I say more, and more and chatting while I am trying to teach, or seeing the classic aggressive, challenging, and antagonistic side of students.
Today, I will discuss 4 of the most useful tips and topics from the readings I can apply to the field of communication and incorporate into my teaching.

Plagiarism

• First Day to Final Grade suggests to combat plagiarism early in the semester by clearly outlining personal and university policies in the syllabus and verbally to the class. It is also suggested to allow students the benefit of the doubt in regards to plagiarism and invite the student to meet with you to discuss their work. Ask the student to talk a little bit about their paper or sources they used. If they can discuss their work knowledgeably, the work may be authentic. First Day to Final Grade also states that teachers will miss a certain percentage of plagiarism and you have to accept that. Signs of plagiarism suggested include looking for work that does not fit the criteria of the assignment, work that is not the usual tone or degree of work a student normally produces, and Googling phrases or sources to find the original work.
• In the field of communication, many assignments are written assignments. Students may feel the urge to plagiarize when they do not have sufficient time to complete assignments or do not give credit where credit is due. These tips can easily be incorporated by checking sources or full electronic copies of assignments online in data banks of papers.
• Personally, I have no tolerance for plagiarism. I do not want my peers to do it and especially students I am teaching. I agree with the text in having students ask me for citation questions. I will do my best to help, and if they do not seek help, I would rather a student cite something incorrectly, but at least make an effort to cite and show the information is not theirs rather than me thinking they used it hoping I would not catch on. Two weeks ago my mentor observed me teaching and sat in the back of the room with what she liked to call the "bummer club" and I will also refer to them as later in the post. One of the students said he was going to get another university's speech textbook and take an example speech from it and I would never know the difference. Of course my mentor told me he said this, so I pulled him aside after class and asked him about it. I was also extra critical of his sources and speech to prove to him how serious I was. For the upcoming speech my students will be giving, they need to have five sources in a 4-6 minute speech. I will have them turn in electronic copies that I can maybe experiment with the Blackboard SafeAssign software. I will also continue to show my seriousness for plagiarism on the first day of each semester when going over the syllabus.

Antagonistic and Challenging Students

• In chapter 14, McKeachie talks about dealing with problematic students, as does First Day to Final Grade in chapter 7. I like both of their suggestions of making instances where students talk out of turn or challenge ideas and concepts the teacher says into teaching moments. Page 173 in McKeachie's text suggests to probe these students even more and give more examples and information. This reminded me of when I was observing Dr. Raile and a student interrupted so Dr. Raile simply gave even more examples, which then made the student settle down. I agree with the text that students who challenge usually have a genuine interest in the topic or think they have relevant prior knowledge or experience.
• Discussion and concept understanding is a big part of communication classes. A lot of theories are difficult to understand, so multiple examples are often given to accommodate to different students' understanding. When students try to give their own examples, it is important for the teacher to correct them if they are wrong so the entire class does not have this example as correct. While discussion is important in this field also, side conversations and students being antagonistic and talking while the teacher is trying to teach should not be tolerated.
• I have recently began to notice these tendencies in my public speaking classes. My antagonistic students are usually the ones that start discussion, which I am grateful for like the book suggests, but sometimes they continue to talk and be disruptive. The "bummer club" likes to talk through class now. I think this is because they are used to the class. I will implement previously said ideas by having them talk to the class about what they are talking about, or standing in silence at the front of the room and wait for them to notice. Demanding the attention of rude students is not a bad thing.

Exams and cheating

• First Day to Final Grade's readings were helpful this week because I will giving my first exam and I didn't really know what to do during the time the students were taking the test. The text suggests from page 131 about proctoring exams to minimize cheating:

-have students move their desks apart
-have students sit every other seat
-make students put all papers, books, and cell phones into their bags and close them
- walk around the room during the exam period, and if you are sitting in the front,
look up often
-if any students are acting suspicious, watch them carefully or stand near them
-ask students wearing baseball caps to take them off or turn them backwards so
you can watch where their eyes are focused
-have two forms of the same exam with the questions in a different order

• I think these tips can be used in the field of communication or any field that gives exams. When students know the teacher is being watchful, they will hopefully be less likely to risk cheating.
• I will implement this in my teaching already on Friday! I was kind of wondering what to do during the exam. I planned on sitting in the front, and I'm glad the text reminded specifically to look up often. I do not think I will walk around the classroom because this is something I hated when I was a student in high school. I hated when it felt like the teacher was breathing down your neck while you were trying to concentrate. My current classroom aisles are also small, so with backpacks it would be difficult to quietly walk around without distracting the test takers. Since the desks are so close together, I may ask some students to turn their desks or protect their answers with their arms.

Lastly this week, I would like to talk about dealing with grade complaints from students

• Page 132 of First Day to Final Grade addresses student grade complaints. I learned that students that complain about their grades usually do so for the following reasons:
  -They are first year students that are not used to getting lower marks
  -Some students will contest just to see if you will buckle and change the grade
  -Students will flirt and try to intimidate a teacher into making a change
  -Complain that the assignment was too difficult
  -Claim they were graded harder than other TAs would grade
  
  I would like my philosophy on grading to be modeled after the suggestion of always being open to discussing grades, but never assuming just because a student is challenging the grade I gave them that I was wrong and immediately have to back down or change the grade. Curzan and Damour state that grades represent mastery of material, and if I do not think a student mastered the material, they earned the grade I gave them for a reason. Giving students time to think about the grade they received and the comments I gave them will also help students that are irritated at first. Giving students a time they can talk to you about grades will eliminate those that rush up after class demanding answers on the spot. Have them come to you with a paragraph of why they think they were graded in that way and why their grade should be changed. This time lapse will also give the teacher time to reflect on why they gave the marks they did.
• I think the suggestion of giving students a specific time to talk about grades can be beneficial in the field of communication or any field. Time will allow people to cool down and think logically rather than jumping to conclusions and making snap decisions when caught off guard.
• I read this and implemented it when I handed my students latest speeches back. I have had an incredibly busy week this week, so I did not want students asking me after class and catching me off guard as to why I graded them in the way I did. I have this weekend to take some personal time since all of my assignments were turned in for the week, and told them I will be glad to speak with any of them on Monday during my office hours after I have had some time to relax and reflect. I also want them to talk in my office so that other students are not around to hear their problems, or my decisions regarding them. In the future, I would also like to put a grade complaint policy into my syllabus. I think that if students are going to contest a grade, I will put the proper procedure right into my syllabus so they know the protocol of waiting a day or two, discussing in private, and doing so within a certain time frame.

As I said before, this week's readings couldn't have come at a better time. The blogs are getting easier to write because the tips are becoming more and more useful at the current time. Here are a few helpful additional readings:
More Grade Complaint Tips
This article gives some new and some of the same tips as found in the text. Grade complaints seem to be something all teachers deal with!
Proctoring Exams
This blog from 2007 gives some humorous ideas that you probably should not do while proctoring exams, but the thought of probably crossed your mind a few times...
APA Citation Help - the Owl at Purdue
Lastly, this is where I often find quick citation help. Directing students here can teach them how to correctly cite their sources in APA style. If you simply give them the answer, they will never learn. Having them search on their own will hopefully help them remember for next time. Also, citing their sources will help against accusations of plagiarism.

I normally enjoy the text, but I thought the readings for this week were very repetitive. In each chapter of McKeachie’s text and the supplemental “What the Best Teachers Do”, the tip that assessing students is not just for grading purposes was given numerous times in different ways. It is an important realization that teachers need to be aware of, but I think teachers will come to this knowledge on their own. This week I wrote my first test for my COMM 110 students, so the majority of information in these readings was pretty helpful. I found myself writing down quite a few smaller tips and then marking a few as most important. While writing my test questions I was not thinking in terms of how can I write difficult questions to give me a visible spread of grades, but rather so my students will be able to display what they have learned from lecture, discussion, activities, and writing and delivering two speeches. The test has a format that needs to be consistent across all COMM 110 sections, so it consists of multiple choice and true and false questions. These are some of the most common types of assessment for students, so I thought McKeachie’s alternative teaching methods was new and very interesting.

Alternative Assessment Models

• Group testing, online testing, graphic concept representation, and portfolios were a few methods McKeachie suggested. I liked the group testing and online testing suggestions best. Group testing is having students that have already been working in groups take a test, and then get together in groups to go over answers and discuss where they were coming from in their answers. Online testing is simply having students take their exams using a computer instead of on paper. Each method has their drawbacks, but I think both are a good alternative to normal assessment.
• I think group testing would be beneficial to the field of communication because it involves plenty of discourse. A lot of information can be justified to fit different concepts, so short answer and essay questions could bring great discussion forward. Also, students commonly work in groups in communication so this would extend that experience one more step. Online testing would also work in communication. I think online testing is difficult for many reasons, but having a secure testing center on campus like McKeachie suggested would clear up any concerns. If students take online tests at home, they can use textbooks, friends, or web sites. They can even print out the test questions and pass them along to friends that have not taken the exam yet. This not only compromises the integrity of the exam, but also makes more work for the teacher because their test bank has been compromised also. If all students were taking the exam in one room, nobody would be able to have textbooks, no talking, and the computers would probably have some sort of program on them that makes the exam the only available window open. Online testing would also be beneficial for essay based questions. Students can type a lot quicker than writing, and the test will be legible for teachers to grade.
• I don’t think I will incorporate group testing into my teaching of COMM 110, but if I had my own course in the future I think this is something I would like to do. I think I personally learn better when I teach others what I know, so I think this style of testing will increase retention of the knowledge after testing. Online testing for COMM 110 may be difficult also because the test needs to be standard for all 60+ sections. Students could easily take the exam with other friend or use their text because NDSU does not have a secure testing center.

Another method McKeachie mentioned that lends itself nicely to group work is using peer assessment.
Peer and self assessment:

• Students can assess other students’ work before final copies are turned in. This is a way to get feedback to correct errors in their work. Students don’t often take the time to proofread their work before turning it in, so giving this opportunity in class can make noticeable differences in the quality of work.
• This can be implemented in the field of communication by having students review papers, essays, review questions, presentations, etc. This can be done in hard copy or even online. Blackboard and many other programs other universities have come with a discussion board feature or way for students to post their work and reply to each other with feedback. Technology lends itself nicely in the way that students could also e-mail each other copies and give feedback through comments or track changes on Microsoft Word.
• This is definitely something I am going to incorporate into my teaching. In fact, I am going to do something similar this week in my COMM 110 class. I am first going to create rubrics or specific criteria for what I am looking for in assignments. I will go through with students what each of the items mean. Students will then deliver their speech and give a formal outline version to group members. Those reading and listening will look for and listen for each element. If it is there, they will grade it. If the element is not there, they can give feedback to the student to fix before delivering the speech for a grade. I also like this because it will make the students more aware of what I will be looking for when grading. I also do this after students give their speeches. I have them evaluate themselves. I have them write what they think they did well, what they can work on for next time, and if they feel comfortable a grade they would give themselves. The students are also required to evaluate two of their peers. They have to provide similar information to what they critique themselves on.

The next important tip from McKeache is in regard to teaching students how to take a test.
Test taking:

• Many students may not be familiar with multiple formats of test taking. Most have taken multiple choice and true and false tests, but some have not. Essay tests are something new to college students, and every teacher writes questions differently. In chapter 9, McKeachie suggests to take about 15 minutes to teach students to take a test in the format you are giving.
• I think this is a good idea in all fields. As a student, I liked when teachers gave as much information as they could about tests to ease any concerns or anxiety I had. Now as a teacher, I sometimes feel like I am spoon feeding the students or giving them a crutch through the class, but I always give myself a reality check and remember what I liked as a student.
• To incorporate this into my teaching, I will give the following tips during review day:
  -go through the entire test and answer the questions you do know. Going through the
  test might give you an idea of other concepts and you can apply the knowledge from
  the questions to other more difficult questions.
  -eliminate some of the choices. If you can eliminate on or two choices, you can have a
  50/50 chance of getting the question correct!
  - When completed, go through the test again to make sure you answered all of the
  questions. I do not think I will give any advice in regards to changing answers when
  you go through the test again. I always like to say go with your gut instinct, but
  McKeache talked about no positive research saying that changing answers makes
  scores go down. I will however ease students worry and anxiety about the test by
  telling them to relax, breathe, and to not over analyze the questions. I did not write the
  questions to be tricky, have a certain number of answers be A, B, C or that they are in
  any particular order.

Late work:

• The last tip I will address is about late work in the supplemental reading, “What the Best Teachers Do”. We also talked a little bit about this in class last week, but I decided to concretely figure out my stance on late work. The article suggested that late work is OK. I do not agree with this. The text argued in favor of students needing to still learn from the work and simply taking a letter grade off does not do this.
• In the field of communication, many people are working against deadlines. I think that having a no late work policy is important in these classes. I think it instills these values in students. However, I was always a student that was aware of deadlines and did not have to worry about consequences of late work. However, I am divided on this issue. I am understanding in special circumstances. I am human also and had to ask for an extension on a paper. The paper turned out much better than it would have been if I turned it in on the day I had chosen for my due date. Class work is a lot different than assignments given in a professional setting. As an intern at MeritCare, I had deadlines all the time. If I did not have something proofed, it could not be sent to the graphic designer to get started. Most projects had an absolute finish deadline, so it would not be fair of me to be late and still expect the graphic designer to rush and finish before the deadline.
• In my classroom, I will implement a concrete late work policy at the beginning. This semester, I just kind of used the canned policy that was already on the syllabus. However, I want my students to know that I do not want work coming in late unless they were given previous permission or have a special circumstance. I think that teachers would go absolutely crazy if they had random assignments being turned in at different times. I want everything at once. I can keep the assignments organized, and get my grading done all at once. Students are notorious for just handing in papers with no explanation of what it is or when it was actually due. As a teacher, I do not have time to try to figure out what assignment it was or when it was due. I understand that students still need to learn, so I will also state that all assignments must be completed. I also think point deductions are better than a complete zero. I think it is only fair that students that completed the work on time be given an advantage to students that were not as organized or dedicated as they were.
  

Some helpful links I found this week regarding the readings:
Alternative Assessment Methods
This site gives some more information about alternative assessment methods.

Blackboard's Peer and Self Assessment Directions
Blackboard has a peer and self assessment function built right in. I might try this for my COMM 110 class. The students have a group speech coming up so they can give each other feedback over Blackboard this time. If I do not use this now, I will have the link handy for when I want to in the future.